69 M20E vs 65-66

[DaV8or]

Quote: tony

When you pop the breaker and hand crank the gear down, does the gear up down indication still work on the instrument panel or do you need to look down on the floor to see if the green piece of plastic is showing in the window?

[DaV8or]

Oh wait! I do remember! It does still work. It's ultimately how you know it's down and locked. I remember cranking until I felt resistance and was hesitant to keep cranking, but I remembered what the A&P who had just done the annual on the plane had told me, to keep cranking until the light comes on, then stop cranking!

I just remembered that.

[Hank]

Should be 52 turn of the handle from full-up to down-and-locked. Counting them helps to pass the monotony.

It never hurts to double-check the floor indicator. I had to finish hand-cranking when I had an electrical failure on a VOR-A approach:  dropped gear, hit the landing light, lost everything. Pulled the breaker, engaged crank, turned four times and would go no further. The floor indicator was green and said "Down."

Practice with a safety pilot in the right seat. This is something you need to be able to do. A gear-up landing, with new prop, new belly, a few antennas and an engine tear-down may well total some of our aging birds. What's 65% of your insured hull value, compared to these current charges? That's the typical "total" point for many insurance companies.

[KLRDMD]

Quote: Hank

Practice with a safety pilot in the right seat. This is something you need to be able to do. 

[KSMooniac]

I've had to do it for real in my J, and the panel annunciator light does still work with the gear act. breaker pulled.  It just so happened my electric motor failed as I was on my way to Willmar for fuel tank work in 2008.    It picked a good place to die!  Bruce said I was fortunate that the backup system worked because it is easy for the spline drive to be mis-rigged and get chewed up from normal operation, and then fail to engage when you really need it!  He has lots of pictures and stories to back it up, too.  For that reason, I only check mine at annual, and make doubly-sure the drive disengages completely, and then "feel" the crank mechanism while running the electric motor to make sure there is no input to it.

[DaV8or]

Quote: KSMooniac

Bruce said I was fortunate that the backup system worked because it is easy for the spline drive to be mis-rigged and get chewed up from normal operation, and then fail to engage when you really need it!  He has lots of pictures and stories to back it up, too.  For that reason, I only check mine at annual, and make doubly-sure the drive disengages completely, and then "feel" the crank mechanism while running the electric motor to make sure there is no input to it.

[KLRDMD]

Quote: DaV8or

I have seen this spline. It is the most ridiculously tiny, fragile thing. It is some pretty poor engineering. I'm also told that the spline is no longer supported by Mooney, so you have to find a used one if you need it and every salvage place knows it. $$$$$ If it goes bad, your choices are all $$$$$ unless you get lucky and find a salvage Mooney where the owner really doesn't know. If it ever happens to me, I will probably have my brother make me a new one. He has a pretty complete machine shop and I think he could do it if I gave him the drawings.

[Theo]

Quote: DaV8or

Also, does this means there is almost no possibilty of manual gear having a failure??

[Hank]

Quote: KLRDMD

Bruce Jaeger from Willmar Air Service (and president of the Mooney Safety Foundation) said at a recent Mooney Pilot Proficiency Program to not manually crank the gear down except in an emergency - never 'practice' it.

[KLRDMD]

Quote: Hank

Bruce Jaeger from Willmar Air Service (and president of the Mooney Safety Foundation) said at a recent Mooney Pilot Proficiency Program to not manually crank the gear down except in an emergency - never 'practice' it.

[KLRDMD]

Quote: JimR

[aerobat95]

Quote: DaV8or

Ok, everyone seems to think that the 65-66 M20s are the sweet spot for pre J Mooneys, but how much worse is a '69? There is one for sale right now that I'm pretty excited about and I'm wondering what down sides it has. I haven't gotten my Mooney book yet, but it's on the way. I'll definately read up on it when I get it. I was just wondering if there are any owners here of '69s or there abouts that can comment from experience. Are they a little worse or is it an OWT?

[DaV8or]

Quote: aerobat95

Which one are you looking at?  Is it the one thats in TX?  Asking price is 79K?  If it is...that one seems like a sweet deal.  Someone on here told me though that the 430 is not a 430W and it seems thats about 3k to get upgraded. 

Ray

[DaV8or]

Quote: JimR

As Scott mentioned earlier, I just practice every year with the airplane on jacks during the annual inspection while assisting my mechanic with the required gear retraction tests.  Best of both worlds . . .

Jim